In the absence of a definitive explanation for MH370’s disappearance, many theories have flourished. Some are rather reasonable and not far outside the realm of possibility, whereas others are completely bonkers. So, without further adieu, here is my countdown for the top 5 most bonkers MH370 conspiracies debunked.

5) Shakira and the Rapper Pitbull Had Prior Knowledge of Flight MH370’s Disappearance

In June of 2012, the American rapper Pitbull released the song “Get It Started”, which featured guest vocals from Colombian-Lebanese singer, Shakira. Here in the UK, the song went mostly unnoticed, only reaching 64 in the charts until some pointed out that the lyrics suggest that Pitbull is either clairvoyant, or that he had prior knowledge of the disappearance of flight MH370.

The first thing to be noted is that “Get It Started” never predicted anything! Instead, people have retrospectively interpreted the lyrics, making it a post-diction (statements that appear to come true only after the events already happened). Nobody before MH370 disappeared ever listened to the song and thought, ‘I wonder if Shakira and Pitbull are trying to warn us about a Boeing 777-200ER vanishing sometime in the future’. Let’s also not forget that MH370 wasn’t going to Malaysia, it was leaving it, and as for the “three cities, two countries, one day”, Pitbull could just as easily be predicting a trip I made in 2016 to Glasgow from Newcastle via Edinburgh. As for the two Iranians (Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza) who boarded the aircraft using stolen passports, they were simply trying to migrate to Germany.

We all have a tendency to seek patterns in random information, and it’s not uncommon for us to perceive connections and meanings between unrelated things. This is why so many conspiracy theories are accompanied with a similar story of foreshadowing and warnings. For example, some say that the Simpsons predicted 9/11, that The Dark Knight Rises warned us about the future Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and that Man of Steel also had prior knowledge of flight MH370 disappearance.

It’s important that we recognise these connections for what they are – at their best, they are interesting coincidences, and nothing more.

“I have been held hostage by unknown military personal after my flight was hijacked (blindfolded). I work for IBM and I have managed to hide my cellphone in my ass during the hijack. I have been separated from the rest of the passengers and I am in a cell. My name is Philip Wood. I think I have been drugged as well and cannot think clearly.”

The blank image, according to those who support this theory, is the “smoking gun” as it contains evidence within its metadata that the picture was taken on Diego Garcia after MH370 vanished. The image’s Exchangeable Image Format (Exif) file which, according to proponents of this theory, cannot be altered, contained information about the camera used to take the photo including settings, date and time the picture was taken, and GPS data. The data shows that it was taken on an iPhone 5, and the GPS coordinates indicate that the photo was taken within the vicinity of Diego Garcia.

The evidence they have for such a swap comes from photos of a large piece of debris found at the crash site. The debris in question is a sizeable chunk of the fuselage with several windows, a door, and the Malaysian flag. Conspiracy theorists claim that the window configuration does not match the aircraft used on the MH17 route that day (9M-MRD), but instead matches the plane which vanished 4 months earlier (MH370 AKA 9M-MRO). Furthermore, they postulate that when the powers that be discovered their mistake, they photoshopped in a window.

Contrary to what the conspiracy theorists would have you believe, the photos of the fuselage debris were not photoshopped. The pictures were taken days apart, and in that time, someone must have damaged the window. Although I have no evidence for this, it’s a better explanation than shadowy figures hijacked HM370, took it to a secret military base on Diego Garcia (did I forget to mention this is a continuation of the hijacking theory), and retrofitted it to make it look like it did pre-2006 for…reasons.

“S Danger SOS it is dire for you to evacuate be caution they are not human 042933964230 SOS Danger SOS.”

The messages also came with a series of numbers, which some believe are coordinates which correspond to Aceh, a northern province of Indonesia, putting it close to where MH370 disappeared. Tj’s tweet went somewhat viral and soon after, he began to receive other strange messages including one in Indonesian telling him to “End the post you just shared about the recording in your phone”, and one in Morse code saying “they are taking over”. Users online began to speculate about the the message and eventually a narrative was formed. The dominant theory was that Tj had received a message from one of the black boxes onboard MH370.

Black boxes, or flight recorders, are electronic devices that record information on an airplane to be used in the event of a severe incident. Usually, an aircraft will carry two types – the first is a flight data recorder, which records the instructions sent to a planes electronic systems, whereas the second is a cockpit voice recorder. Black boxes underwater emit locator beacon signals, or pings, for up to 30 days before the batteries die. They do not have the ability to convert speech into text; nor do they have the ability to ring or text anyone!As for the coordinates, they aren’t really coordinates, it’s just a random number and, depending on where you put the decimal point, you could be in Indonesia or you could be in Cameroon or the Tyrrhenian Sea.

It is more than likely that the creepy voicemail was either made by Tj himself to troll the internet for likes and attention, or by someone he knows pulling a prank on him.The subsequent messages threatening and warning will be from people trolling him. In an interview with Shane Dawson, Tj even says that he doesn’t believe in any of this nonsense.

At the time of writing this blog-post, we still don’t know for sure what exactly happened to MH370, but analysis of all available evidence points towards an unresponsive crew, or a hypoxia event. A fire in the cockpit could have caused the loss of transponders and communications in the aircraft. The crew then might have been trying to find a nearby airfield and turned the aircraft west. They were then overcome by smoke, leaving the autopilot to fly until the plane ran out of fuel and crashed somewhere over the ocean. Another explanation is that the cabin lost pressure, starving the crew of oxygen, causing the loss of cognitive function and trembling of their extremities. It’s possible that, whilst trying to turn the airplane transponder to emergency code, one of the pilots accidentally turned it to standby. The lack of oxygen could have then caused them to fail to respond correctly to the situation, and eventually to fall unconscious, leaving the aircraft to fly on autopilot before running out of fuel. A similar situation happened onboard Helios Airways Flight 522, when it too experienced a lack of cabin pressure, this time as a result of the crew failing to check the aircraft’s pressurisation systems before take-off. As they climbed, the pressure and temperature inside the cabin gradually decreased, and the crew lost their ability to think correctly. Their resultant mistakes led to all but one onboard to lose consciousness as the plane continued to fly on autopilot. A steward onboard, Andreas Prodromou, remained conscious by using a portable oxygen supply and entered the cockpit to try and gain control. However, soon after doing this, one of the engines flamed out due to fuel exhaustion, which sealed Flight 522’s fate. All 115 passengers and 6 crew died when it crashed into the ground near Grammatiko, Greece.

At the moment, there are so many unanswered questions, and we may never know what really happened, but just because we don’t have a concrete explanation doesn’t mean we should entertain elaborate conspiracy theories about MH370.

My name is Myles Power, and I run the educational YouTube channel, powerm1985. I spend what little free time I have sharing my love of SCIENCE! through home experiments, visiting sites of scientific interest, and angrily ranting at pseudoscience proponents. I am also one of the founding members of the podcast 'The League of Nerds' - which I co-host with James from 'The History of Infection'.

I can’t get enough of conspiracy theories, even though I find it worrisome that people make these fallacious connections between unrelated events and that people are generally cynical of authorities. I feel it exposes their own susceptibility to corruption were they in a position of power. A kind of projection, where they think the government or other authorities always has a nefarious hidden agenda.

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